My mother and I have a long tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Day. This year, because Mama didn’t feel up to going out, she, my wife Sherry, and I stayed home and watched a DVD of the Woody Allen’s movie, “Midnight in Paris”.
As is true in so many of his films, this one was a combination of comedy and wrestling with philosophical differences about the meaning of life. A writer finds himself traveling back in time to the Paris of Hemingway, Picasso, Gertrude Stein and others — what he imagines is the “Golden Age” only to find the people there longing for a different “Golden Age”. He eventually realizes that he wants to live in the present, not the past.
The movie made me think about what it means to embrace the “now”, to follow through on truly owning the present. For me that includes looking at our beliefs, usually called resolutions at this time of year, and bringing them to life in Real Time. Yet, so many people I know have given up on making New Year’s Resolutions – they tend to dissipate so quickly and who needs more disappointment in their lives – especially in ourselves?
I think that is why I first began to offer my annual Nourish the Flame: From Resolutions to Results event. I believe that setting intentions, seeing our big visions, and feeling the excitement of what might be possible allows those intentions to lodge in our unconscious. This, in turn, transforms the present into something we want.
Given that science is now proving that much of the experiences we have and the choices we make is governed by this “underground” part of ourselves, I think it is crucial that we have tools to reprogram those settings for success. That’s why I’m so motivated to share with you some of the tried-and-true-tested methods I have used to help my clients (and myself) transform past and future dreams into current reality again and again.
AND have fun at the same time.
The qi (energy) practices you are going to learn are powerful in themselves. But when you have a large number of folks moving qi together on this day, you’ll feel how you’re going to blow the roof (and your glass ceiling) off 2016. If you can’t imagine what I mean, check out this video.
Registrations are still open, with new people signing up every day, so be sure to grab your seat soon. After all, if planning ahead is one of your resolutions for the New Year, you can start TODAY by clicking here. 😉 Ready to set 2016 on fire?
“Renegade-Woo” Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, brings together East Coast Attitude and West Coast energy consciousness as a master teacher, transformative speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
During these last few weeks of 2011, I’ve been pushing to Get Things Done—tying up loose ends, trying to complete unfinished projects, lay out plans for the year to come. All those good end-of-the-year activities that seem So Very Important.
However, in the metaphoric way my body likes to protest my “mind-not-quite-succeeding-being-over–matter,” I’ve also experienced back spasms, a sprained shoulder, smushed thumb, and a torqued knee. As I described in a vlog a few weeks ago, I slammed my thumb in a car door in a mindless flurry of activity. This was after straining my shoulder in an overenthusiastic workout. In the last couple of days, in a fit of denial that I’m not in the same shape I was when I was a fitness instructor in my 20s, I pushed myself into a back spasm trying to do a stretch faster and further than was right for the present moment.
So I have to ask myself what my body is trying to tell me. (I know what I’ve been trying to tell my body, to no avail, “C’mon Let’s GO!!”)
I believe that these physical “mistakes,” where I’ve ignored “where I am” in the miasma of an idealized “where I should be,” are related to how I experience power—trying to Feel, it, Prove it, or generally Muscle my way through it. Now you might think that after 40+ years of practicing qigong, t’ai chi, and yoga, I’d remember that this might not be the optimal way to accomplish my intention. Embarrassing to admit, really.
My injuries are all healing remarkably quickly, ie a back spasm that used to take 2 months to heal has completely reversed itself in two days. But Still. As I set my intentions and work to create my Best Year Yet, I think I’d better remember the image of becoming one with the vast river of flow that is one aspect of Tao. This seems wiser more sane than the kind of Conquer and Deliver attitude I appear to have adopted lately.
Last year, I wrote about the importance of releasing fear for 2011. This year, as I enter 2012, I am invoking the spirit of one of my early T’ai Chi Ch’uan teachers, Dr. Franklin Kwong, now deceased. Week after week, he demonstrated how to feel and use power differently, with a sense of lightness and joy instead of urgency and heaviness. My New Year’s wish is that I carry the touch of his teachings in my awareness once again so I can drop the burdens of “should” to express the possibilities of “shall”.
Have you ever experienced your own power “lightly”?
Vicki Dello Joio, founder of The Way of Joy: A Spiritual Fitness Program, is a teacher, speaker and performing artist. Integrating over 40 years of Chi Kung practice with other martial arts as well as her work in Yoga, Feldenkreis, physical fitness and theater, Vicki has developed a dynamic set of tools to increase awareness, transform obstacles into opportunities and enhance creative potential. Book: The Way of Joy: An Evolutionary Process to Awaken Inspiration, Focus Intention and Manifest Fulfillment, CD: Short Meditations for a Busy Life.
My mother and I have a long tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Day. This year, because Mama didn’t feel up to going out, she, my wife Sherry, and I stayed home and watched a DVD of the Woody Allen’s movie, “Midnight in Paris”. 
